HC asks government to provide details on arms licences

Patna, Apr 13 (UNI) Patna High Court today directed the Bihar government to provide details about applications pending before the authorities concerned for seeking arms licences during the past 15 years.

Hearing arguments on a public interest litigation petition, filed by advocate of Patna High Court Dwivedi Surendra, a division bench of Justice R N Prasad and Justice R K Dutta asked the government to provide information regarding number of applications received for arms licences and number of licences issued.

The bench also directed the government to provide details about the antecedents of those, who got arms licences during the said period.

Earlier, the High Court had initiated contempt proceedings against all DMs (concerned authorities) for not providing details about the arms licences despite issuance of showcause notices to them in this regard.

Mr Surendra informed the court that many applicants got their arms licenses from outside the state like Nagaland, Assam, Manipur and other places due to inordinate delay in issuance of arms licences.

He said arms licences were being renewed without proper verification and demanded a CBI probe into it.

UNI/XC/DH SJC SB BST1947